Moving Forward
by karoanton
Summary: This is my first fanfic.  After Emily's death, the team learns to cope with what happened and what they must now do.  Mainly about Reid and Seaver.  Starts just after "Lauren", but will go on for a while. RxR please
1. Chapter 1: Reeling

Chapter 1: Reeling

Everything was quiet at the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI.

Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner was in his office, trying to keep his mind focussed on the task at hand and not on what his team had gone through the past few weeks.

Senior SSA David Rossi was staring out the window of his own office into the bullpen where SSAs Derek Morgan and Dr. Spencer Reid were seated at their desks.

FBI Cadet Agent Ashley Seaver was drinking coffee in the break area, watching them as well, wondering why she was still here and what she was going to do now.

Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia was seated in her office, surrounded by several computer screens that she still had yet to turn on. Instead of doing so, she was looking through a scrap book she had put together during the Christmas holidays just a few months previously. One page contained photos of her and Reid with their godson, Henry LaMontagne and his parents, their former media liaison Jennifer "JJ" Jareau and her boyfriend Will. It even contained a newspaper clipping announcing Henry's birth. Another two full pages contained photos of her with Morgan, and another two with her boyfriend, fellow technical analyst Kevin Lynch.

It was difficult for her to look at the next page. It contained photos of her and JJ, along with their friend and colleague – _former_ colleague Emily Prentiss. The rest of the pages would get pictures added to them as the years went by, but this, this page would never change – never.

No matter how safe she felt when she was surrounded by her computer screens, searching for the smallest details that made an unsub the scumbag that he or she was, there would always be the knowledge that her teammates – her family – was out in the real world risking their lives to save someone else's. And then there were times that that risk would turn to harm, and that harm would turn to death. That's what happened to Emily, and she didn't want it to happen to anyone else she cared about.

Despite how much she was hurting right now, Garcia gave herself a thought. She thought it lucky that they already had Seaver, who they had already worked with in order for her to continue her remedial training. Lucky because, from Garcia's view, Seaver would be the most likely candidate to continue Emily's job. Though it was still painful to think of it that way, she found that it would be easier to work with someone who was (somewhat) feeling the same loss as them to come and work with them, instead of some random new guy from Counter Intelligence or something like that who didn't understand the pain they were all going through.

But Seaver felt differently. Sure, it would be great to get to actually work as a profiler at the BAU, but she still felt like she was barging in on this team while they were still reeling from the loss of Emily. But _why_ did this all have to happen _now_. As she sipped her coffee and watched Reid and Morgan at their desks and thought about how they'd both approached her with open arms when she had started her training. How Morgan had given her insight on fishing techniques while they were searching for an unsub in Louisiana. Or how Reid was about to give her details – details she now wasn't sure she wanted to know about – that had to do with why her father killed 25 women over the course of ten years.

As these she mulled over these thoughts, she was brought out of her trance by a text from Hotch. It said: My office. Now.


	2. Chapter 2: Decisions Decisions

Seaver took a breath before knocking on the door to Hotch's office. When he said "Come in", she entered.

Hotch was pacing behind his desk with what looked like a case file in his hand. When Seaver entered, he immediately closed the file and gestured for her to sit down while he did the same.

"In light of recent events, Seaver, I've been doing a lot of thinking," he said.

Seaver simply nodded, waiting for him to continue.

"I've come to the conclusion that – I'm not exactly sure in what words I can put this." He paused for a moment. "Your remedial training here was done under the supervision of Agent Prentiss. I understand that you will still have to continue your training before you will be able to make a decision, but…would you at least consider-," he stopped. This was going to be harder than he had initially thought.

"Consider what, sir?" Seaver asked, though she had a good guess at what was coming.

"Consider taking Prentiss' old job. I understand that it's a lot to take in right now, but we will need someone to take her place – specifically a woman so that our team doesn't look biased or sexist. Also, you've pretty much been going through the same thing as the rest of us these past couple of weeks, and it would be better than having someone completely new who doesn't understand what we've been going through. Do you understand where I'm going with this?"

"I do, sir. And, with all due respect, Hotch, despite my working closely with E- Prentiss during the past couple of months, I still feel like I'm intruding on all of you. You're all a family and I feel like I'm that in-law that marries someone's brother after his wife died that was always a favourite to everyone. No offence, sir," she added, suddenly remembering what Rossi told her about Hotch losing his wife.

Hotch noticed this, but decided to push it aside, for now.

"You _will_ consider my offer, won't you?" he asked.

"I'll be giving it a lot of thought, and I'll be sure to give you my answer once my training is complete, if that's alright with you, sir," she said.

"Very well. That is all," he said.

Seaver got up to leave, but once she reached the door, she turned back to Hotch.

"For curiosity's sake, sir, if I were to take the job, would you at least not give me Prentiss' old desk?" she asked.

"That can be arranged when it's needed, Seaver," Hotch responded.

With that, he turned back to the case file he had been looking at, satisfied that he now had one less thing to worry about, while Seaver retrieved her now cold coffee and plucked up the courage to go and talk to Reid and Morgan.


	3. Chapter 3: Dreams

**Sorry I haven't written anything in a while, I've had writer's block. I really wanted to write a chapter from Reid's point of view and this week's episode **_**With Friends Like These…**_** I got some inspiration from when Reid is sleeping on the plane after the case. Also, I've become really obsessed with Maroon 5 lately, so I just felt like putting that snippet in there. Hope you all like it.**

Spencer Reid was exhausted. He couldn't tell if it was those headaches that have been going on the past couple of months or did they have something to do with losing Emily. He needed a conclusion.

It was because of the headaches – Emily's death was just some sort of extra strain that made it harder for him to concentrate on work or sleeping.

On the plane back from Portland, he somewhat managed to get some much needed sleep. Throughout the ride, he drifted between a deep sleep and simply lying awake on the couch. At one point he could hear Morgan telling someone to get some sleep. Opening his eyes slightly, he immediately knew that it was Seaver he was talking to because he could see Hotch and Rossi asleep from where he lay.

Closing his eyes again, he thought of the new agent. He wouldn't say it was pot calling the kettle black when he thought of how Seaver immediately joined the team after her graduation from the Academy to fill in Prentiss' role – seeing as he had been much younger when he joined and was also a certified genius. Then again, having Seaver come in as a probationary agent was all Strauss' idea. But still, would Seaver be able to manage filling those shoes with no prior experience in the FBI? Reid somewhat hoped so. Seaver pretty much lost Prentiss the way the rest of the team had, except for the fact that she hadn't known her for four and a half years. Plus, she had also become quite good friends with the rest of the team.

With these thoughts drifting through his head about his friend, Reid drifted back into sleep. Just then, Seaver was preparing herself to try and get some sleep for the rest of the plane ride. She had pulled out her iPod from her go-bag. Listening to Maroon 5 seemed to have some strange effect on her and often made her sleepy. Nevertheless, she loved the band, and had been to a couple of their concerts. Their newest single, "Never Gonna Leave This Bed" seemed to fit quite well at this moment.

As she placed the earbuds in her ears, leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, she thought of her recent talk with Morgan. She noticed that he looked over at Reid when he mentioned how, luckily, the dreams that the job of a profiler gave them would go away. Seaver wondered what was going on in the young genius' head these days. Obviously, like the rest of the team, the loss of Prentiss was on his mind, but there was also something else. Before the whole Ian Doyle thing started, he had been avoiding the looks the team had been giving him. He was literally hiding in the dark. It was especially happening during that case in Miami, but then she thought to when he had asked her about the weather before they had landed there. Maybe he was just sensitive to sunlight, but there could have been more to it.

Seaver didn't want to dwell on it too much. If she did, she would probably start prodding Reid every time she saw him, which would probably make him feel even worse. But if she didn't, she would probably start avoiding him, and then he may start wondering what was going on with her that was only affecting him personally.

She decided it was silly to worry about Reid. Whatever his problems were, that was his business. And if he was willing to tell her something about it, then she would embrace him with open arms. But for now, she would let him work at his own pace, ask him how he was doing once in a while, and keep it as casual as she could. In the meantime, it was probably a good idea that she start to get some sleep.

With that, she let the music take her into another world of dreams and colours and Adam Levine*.

Colours? Had she been transported into Garciaworld?

_Take it, take it all, take all that I have._

*the lead singer of Maroon 5


	4. Chapter 4: The Chat Room

**Ok, so I've got another new chapter up today. I decided to play around with this Chat Room thing, since I've seen a few people write fanfics entirely based on that, but since I've already started this, it'll probably just come up once every few chapters.**

When Seaver arrived at home to her flat, she was exhausted. After the Tampa case, she, Morgan and Reid had to work on the case files. As per usual, Reid was done first by a longshot, while she and Morgan had to work for another hour before finally getting done. She had offered Morgan a ride home, since (according to Garcia) it was in the same direction as her flat, but he declined, saying he had to meet with Hotch for something.

Seaver collapsed on her bed and tried closing her eyes and sleeping in her work clothes, but that usually never turned out well. The last time that had actually happened, she owed herself a week's worth of dry cleaning. Besides, this time, she couldn't find the energy – or lack thereof – to fall asleep. So instead, she got up, changed into a set of more comfortable clothes, turned on her wireless modem, and opened her laptop. She logged into the BAU members website and opened up the chatroom.

**AshBAU**: Bonjour? Anybody here?

**DrReid**: Bonjour Ashley, comment ça va?

**Kevin'sGirl:** Geez Reid! Ur screen name is waaaay to obvious

**AshBAU:** ^likes what Garcia said ;)

**DrReid:** Well then what am I supposed to use instead, hmm?

**Kevin'sGirl:** Hmm, idk, maybe something like "LoveDoctor"? What do u think Ashley?

**AshBAU:** LoveDoctor? I like that, but maybe something like… "GeniusBoy" maybe?

**Kevin'sGirl:** That's cute

**DrReid: **what does idk mean?

_ChocolateThunder has signed off._

**AshBAU:** hey Morgan! Help me and Garcia out here, we're trying to give Reid a new screen name.

**DrReid:** none of which I will be accepting…

**AshBAU: **w/e, so far we have LoveDoctor or GeniusBoy

**ChocolateThunder:** how about "SmartAss", it's very accurate :P

**Kevin'sGirl:** I like it!

**DrReid:** I don't -.-

**ChocolateThunder:** "Kevin'sGirl", baby girl, is that u?

**Kevin'sGirl:** why yes it is my dark prince.

**AshBAU:** who's Kevin, Garcia? A boyfriend of urs?

**Kevin'sGirl:** indeed he is, but we're getting off topic here. What's Reid's new screen name going to be?

**EVERYONELEAVEMEALONE**: Happy now?

**ChocolateThunder:** woah, pretty boy, a little harsh don't you think?

**EVERYONELEAVEMEALONE:** yea, well, you guys are _literally_ giving me a headache, so I'm going to bed now. Good night!

_EVERYONELEAVEMEALONE_ _has signed off_

**AshBAU:** …

**Kevin'sGirl: **….

**ChocolateThunder:** …..

**AshBAU:** guys, I think he's really mad :S

**ChocolateThunder:** yea, well, he's been like that for quite a while now?

**AshBAU: **what do u mean?

**Kevin'sGirl:** ya Morgan, what do u mean?

**ChocolateThunder:** nothing, Reid's just had a lot on his mind these past few months.

**Kevin'sGirl:** r u keeping something from us, Morgan?

**ChocolateThunder: **no, I'm just saying, he's had a lot on his mind. Anyways, I gotta go…so sleeeepy! See you two tomorrow.

_ChocolateThunder has signed off_

**AshBAU:** wow, I wonder what they're keeping from us.

**Kevin'sGirl: **idk, but with the job we have, it's probably a good idea that they keep it from us.

**AshBAU: **why?

**Kevin'Girl:** cuz it can be really hard to keep something personal to yourself for a long time if you spend more time sleeping in a hotel room for work than in your own home.

**AshBAU:** harsh, but then again, what part of life isn't like that.

_Rossi123 has signed on_

**Rossi123:** How _you_ doing?

**Kevin'sGirl:** _Really_ Rossi?

**Rossi123:** what?

**AshBAU: **you just about de-idolized my idol during my teenaged rebel years

**Rossi123:** well, _Friends_ is about the only good show you can find on television at this time of night, and I've already seen the news.

**Kevin'sGirl:** touché to that, and Ashley, Joey Tribbiani was ur idol during ur teen rebel years? LOL!

**AshBAU: **DUH! That guy just about ruled my life! Anyways, I'm gonna pull a Morgan, or a Reid, whichever u choose and try to get a few hours of sleep. Gnite

_AshBAU has signed off_

**Rossi123:** well, I guess it's just you and me now, Penelope.

**Kevin'sGirl:** don't make it sound dirty, Rossi.

_Kevin'sGirl has signed off_

_Genius187 has signed on_

**Genius187:** OK, I've made my screen name something that isn't my addressed name. happy now?

**Rossi123:** what's going on Reid?

**Genius187:** Hey Rossi! Nothing really, Seaver, Garcia and Morgan were trying to make me change my screen name to "SmartAss", "GeniusBoy", or "LoveDoctor".

**Rossi123:** LoveDoctor, really?

**Genius187:** yeah, that was Garcia's idea. She's under the premonition that I've had a "crush" on Seaver ever since she was consulting with us on that case in New Mexico last year. Crazy, right?

**Rossi123:** sure…..

**Genius187:** what? You think she was right?

**Rossi123:** idk

**Genius187:** what the hell does that even mean?

**Rossi123:** I don't know.

**Genius187:** then why'd you use it?

**Rossi123:** I think you may want to get that brain check out, Reid. Idk = I don't know. Kapeesh?

**Genius187:** of course! Sorry, I've just been really stressed out lately.

**Rossi123:** we all have, Reid.

**Genius187:** no, but I've been _really_ stressed out, it's been going on for a few months actually.

**Rossi123:** well, try and get some rest, maybe you should take a vacation. How about you take a week off and go to Vegas and see your mom.

**Genius187:** yeah, that sounds like a good idea. She probably won't recognize me with my short(er) hair. Anyways, good night Rossi. See you tomorrow.

_Genius187 has signed off_


	5. Chapter 5: Crushes

One morning, Reid was in the break room enjoying _another_ cup of coffee and looked out into the bullpen. He had never consciously realized that he was watching Seaver until Morgan walked over and nudged him in the side.

"You like her, Reid, don't you?" the older agent said.

"What makes you think that?" Reid asked.

"Oh, that's not _me _talking, Pretty Boy. I heard all of this from Garcia." Morgan chuckled.

"Of course it is. Why does everyone think that whenever a pretty, blonde woman walks into the BAU that I'll immediately start crushing on her?"

"So you don't deny that you think she's pretty?" Morgan asked.

"I never said that," Reid denied.

"You just said _pretty _and _blonde_. I mean, first you and JJ went on that football date five years ago-,"

"We went as _friends_," Reid interrupted.

"You still had a crush on her, man. Anyways, and now Seaver comes in to work here, and believe me Reid, Garcia and I aren't the only ones on the team who know that you have a crush on her." Morgan finished.

"Well, say I _did_ have a crush on her, what am I supposed to do about it? I mean, there's the anti-fraternization rules, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to get around those."

"I'm sure Rossi can pull a few strings."

"You and Garcia are just determined to get me to admit that I like her, don't you?" Reid asked.

"Technically, you already did that, so now we just want you to go make a move on her, if you know what I mean." Morgan said and winked at his friend.

Reid, who had just taken a sip of his coffee, sputtered and choked on it for a few seconds and then regained his breath.

While this was happening, Garcia had made her way over to Seaver's desk and the two women were talking.

"Oh, gosh! Is he gonna be OK?" Seaver asked as they watched Reid choke on his coffee.

"Don't worry, my little Miracle Worker, Junior G-Man will be fine after choking on a little coffee. Though, I have to admit, he does seem a little 'lovesick' if you know what I mean." Garcia replied.

Seaver rolled her eyes. Ever since she had officially become a part of the team, Garcia had been nagging her about Reid having a crush on her.

"I still don't think he actually has a crush on me." Seaver said.

"Oh yea? And why do you think so?" Garcia asked.

"Because I've seen how guys like him react to girls like me. They'll start stuttering around me and try to talk to me every chance they get. Reid doesn't do any of those things." Seaver stated matter-of-factly.

"That's because he's too damn stubborn to realize it. Plus, he's a profiler, he's supposed to be good at hiding stuff, otherwise we end up taking the job home with us, or our personal lives to work with us. Either way, it's not a good mix."

"And _that's_ why it would not be a good idea for Reid and me to hook up. We'd be doing both. Imagine how that'd work out." Seaver said.

"Simple!" Garcia exclaimed. "The two negatives cancel each other out and become a positive! So it'd be perfect!"

Seaver gave her a confused stare.

"Kevin likes math," Garcia said. "Anyhow, I must now bid you adieu and go find another place to fly you lovebirds off to."

Seaver stared at her again.

"As well as the rest of the team," Garcia added and left Seaver to her thoughts.

Just then, Reid came back from the break room.

"Where'd Morgan go off to?" Seaver asked.

"Probably to devise another plan to get the two of us to hook up," Reid replied. The two agents were together fully aware of what their co-workers were expecting out of them.

"I suppose we shouldn't expect anything less of them, should we?" Seaver said jokingly as she turned back to her paperwork.

"I suppose so," Reid chuckled and did the same.


	6. Chapter 6: Plane Talk

**Sorry I haven't written in ages, I have exams in a few weeks and a bunch of projects that are due soon.**

Seaver sat across from Reid on the plane. They were coming back from a particularly creepy case that involved an unsub who tried to drown himself with a young woman who he believed to be his long dead step-daughter. Morgan was listening to music near the cockpit while Rossi and Hotch were playing a card game on the opposite end of the plane. Reid was fast asleep while Seaver was reading on her Kobo.

Or at least he appeared to be sleeping.

Seaver had broken her gaze away from the novel she was reading and looked up to see Reid with his eyes shut tight and a look on his face as if he were in some sort of pain. She leaned across the table between them and gently shook him awake. Reid's eyes fluttered open soon enough.

"What happened?" he asked and stifled a yawn.

"Sorry, it just looked like you weren't having the best of dreams I guess," Seaver replied as she leaned back into her seat and picked up her Kobo.

"Hmph," Reid sighed and was silent for a minute. "I've been feeling like that a lot lately, actually," he said, causing Seaver to look back up from her Kobo.

"Getting what?" she asked.

"Some…really _odd_ dreams. I mean, they sort of come with the job, but these ones aren't nightmares, and they don't keep appearing over and over again. Instead, I just keep having a different one. Well, I haven't really had any _recurring_ dreams for a couple of years. But the one I _was_ having didn't even start after I got into the BAU. They had been going on before that even happened," he said. Seaver looked confused.

"Could you elaborate on that a little," she said.

Reid pondered for a few seconds, wondering where to begin.

"It all started when I was about four years old, I think. A boy named Riley Jenkins was murdered in the neighbourhood I grew up in. He wasn't even that much older than me. He was sexually abused and stabbed, and he was found behind a washing machine in the basement of his own home."

"Riley Jenkins. I think I remember studying that case. The unsub was killed by the boy's father, right?" Seaver said.

"Yup. But the story gets better. So afterwards, I start having these dreams. They come up again every once in a while. Then after I joined the BAU, they pop up more often. Then a few years went by and we had a case in Las Vegas, which is where I'm from, by the way," he added. Seaver simply nodded. She hadn't known this about Reid.

"Anyways," he continued. "So we had a case in Las Vegas that involved a boy who had been abducted and held for a week before he was found dead. A week after that, another boy had been taken. This seemed to trigger something in my memory, and I started having this same dream every night. It even happened when I fell asleep on the jet while we were on the way there. Luckily, we found the second boy alive within a couple of days. But then I had another dream the night after we found him while I was staying with my mom. This time there was a man holding Riley and putting him down behind that washing machine. Then he turned around…and it was my father."

Reid struggled with getting the last part out, not only because the Riley Jenkins case made him meet his father for the first time in seventeen years, but with Seaver's own history, he was afraid she might take it the wrong way.

"Oh," she said. "That sure adds a whole new dynamic to the story, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it sure does," Reid replied.

"So, um, why was it so shocking that your father was in the dream if he didn't kill Riley? I mean, it's your _father_, that's one thing. But I see something else."

"Well…" Reid began slowly. "There's the fact that the day after I had that final dream, I saw my father for the first time in seventeen years."

"Seventeen years? You must have been…"

"Ten when he left my mom and me. Yeah," Reid said and stared into his lap.

There was then an awkward moment until Seaver nervously spoke up.

"That's almost how long it's been since my dad was arrested and I last saw him," she said. This was the first time she had told someone about this since she had spoken with Prentiss about it when she was consulting in that first case in New Mexico. Even then, she didn't get into specifics, except for the fact that she had kept the letters her father would occasionally write to her.

Reid looked up; there was sympathy and understanding in his eyes. _God, of all the looks he could give me right now, he had to look like _that, Seaver thought.

Of course, she had never seen him when he was at his most vulnerable.

"You never visited him?" he asked.

"No. He writes to me once in a while. I keep the letters, but I've never read them," Seaver replied. She was getting a whole lot of déjà vu signals from this, and she didn't like it a lot.

"Hmm," Reid said again and was silent for another minute. Seaver then turned back to her reading.

"What is that?" Reid then asked. Seaver already knew from the fact that he used folders while everyone else on the team had a tablet that he wasn't one to stay in tune with the latest technology.

"It's a Kobo. Basically, it's used to store a bunch of books onto so you don't have to carry the big hard copies everywhere."

"So what are _you_ reading then?" Reid asked. He was feeling a little déjà vu as well, from back when he had asked Prentiss about the star puzzle she hadn't been able to put together after one case.

"Jane Austen," Seaver replied.

"I see. Pride and Prejudice?"

"Oh no, I had that one finished _ages _ago."

Reid pondered for a moment. This conversation was certainly turning out to be more comfortable than the previous one.

"Northanger Abbey?"

Seaver shook her head.

"Sense and Sensibility," Reid said defiantly.

"Nope."

"Hmm," Reid thought some more. "Emma?"

"Ding ding ding! You've just earned ten points!" Seaver joked.

"What's my prize?" Reid asked.

"To be decided," Seaver told him.

"Well, then I look forward to finding out," Reid chuckled, then got up to go and get some more sleep on the couch. "Good night Seaver, and don't wake me up until we've landed, will you?"

Seaver giggled.

"Have a nice sleep, Reid."


	7. Chapter 7: Returning Face

Seaver unlocked the door to her flat, dumped her unused go-bag onto her couch, and immediately made her way to her bathroom and took a shower before going to bed. It had been a long day, first with the human trafficking case, and then afterwards when she went to dinner with Reid. At the time, it seemed fine, seeing as she _was _starving, but they both soon realized that the rest of the team would not think so when they were all fully rested later that morning. She reflected on this as she dried herself off with a towel. She didn't bother with drying her hair as she would fix it when she woke up, so put on an old college t-shirt and fresh underwear and immediately went to bed.

000000000000

Reid was exhausted when he came into the bullpen at exactly 9:30 the next morning. He wanted to try and at least make it through the day without a case so that he could finally try to get a full night's sleep later, so he started his morning with a cup of coffee _loaded_ with sugar. As he made his way to the break room to do so, he saw Garcia talking with Seaver…wait, no, that wasn't Seaver, that was…

"JJ?" he asked as he approached the two women.

"Spence. Hey," JJ said as she hugged the godfather of her son, Henry.

"What brings you here?" Reid asked awkwardly. JJ hadn't been in much contact with any of the team besides Garcia since Emily had died.

"She's here to take half my workload and pay, that's what," Garcia answered for her.

"Um," was all Reid could say. Subtle hints didn't exactly cut it for him.

"Meet your new, or I guess you should say _old_ Communications Liaison," JJ told him.

"You're coming back? That's great,"

"Well, technically, I'm already back, but I really feel at home and it's great to get to see everyone again. Now if you two could excuse me, I've got some case files to look over." And with that, JJ left Reid and Garcia to themselves.

As Reid made his way over to the coffee machine in the break room, Garcia followed.

"So…" she said with a smirk on her face.

"So?"

"How was last night?" Garcia asked.

"Well, considering we were all up until 2 a.m. yesterday hunting down a trafficking ring, I'd say I'm feeling pretty swell under the circumstances."

Garcia groaned.

"Honestly, Reid, you need to take a hint more often," she said. "I was talking about what happened _after_ we caught those creeps."

"I had an exceptionally late dinner with Seaver before going home and catching up on as much sleep as possible, which did not provide any help to the headache that I'm currently having, so if you don't mind, I'd really like to get to work," Reid said while adding a mound of sugar in his coffee before leaving Garcia and making his way to his desk.

"Morning," he said to Seaver, who was already subconsciously working on one of the files that stood in a pile on her desk.

Seaver replied with a "hmm" without looking up from her work.

Reid didn't take this into account and sat down at his desk to begin work.

After they had both been working hard for about an hour, Seaver blurted out:

"Did Garcia interrogate you when you came in today?"

"She did indeed," Reid replied.

"Hmm," Seaver hummed quietly then turned back to the file she was working on.

A few minutes later JJ approached the pair to tell them they had another case and would be briefed on the plane.

**OK, I know this chapter is kinda short but now I've got the whole summer to write stuff, so look forward to more frequent updates **.


	8. Chapter 8: Back in the Chat Room

**OK, so I forgot to mention in my last chapter, Seaver is leaving *cries*. Anyone else have a feeling of déjà vu over this? Anyways, I've decided to put in another chatroom chapter. Oh, and I know Hotch is a little OOC in this chapter, but you have to admit, it **_**is **_**pretty funny. Enjoy!**

_JJLovesWill has signed on_

**JJLovesWill**: Hellooooooooo people of the BAU!

**MrsLevine:** Hey JJ, Seaver here!

**ChocolateThunder:** Sup ladies!

**Kevin'sGirl:** Behold my mere minions ;)

**Genius187:** Hi JJ!

**Rossi123:** How YOU doing, JJ?

**Kevin'sGirl:** Rossi, we've already talked about this.

**MrsLevine:** you are forbidden to use any reference to my teenagehood idol Joey Tribianni

**Kevin'sGirl:** no matter how Italian

**MrsLevine:** or full of pure awesomeness

**Kevin'sGirl:** he

**MrsLevine:** or his portrayer Matt LeBlanc

**Kevin'sGirl:** may be

**Genius187:** ^ huh?

**ChocolateThunder: **Seaver, if u love Joey Tribianni so much, why is ur username "MrsLevine"

**MrsLevine:** OK, lemme straighten this out for u guys: Joey Tribianni – like I said before – is my teenagehood idol. Adam Levine, on the other hand, I AM in love with

_SuperDad has signed on_

**MrsLevine:** he's also the lead singer of Maroon 5

**SuperDad:** who's the lead singer of Maroon 5? And what's Maroon 5 for that matter?

**Genius187:** Maroon 5 is some band Seaver likes to listen to and Adam Levine is the lead singer and Seaver's also in love with him.

**ChocolateThunder:** she also states that Joey Tribianni is her teenagehood idol.

**SuperDad:** oh, I see…how YOU doing Seaver?

**MrsLevine:** *facepalm* I give up…

_MrsLevine has signed off_

**JJLovesWill:** so who do we tease now?

**Kevin'sGirl:** hm…

**ChocolateThunder:** …

**Genius187:** …

**SuperDad:** …

**Rossi123:** …

**ChocolateThunder:** omg, look, a squirrel!

**SuperDad:** huh?

**ChocolateThunder:** a squirrel just ran past my window

**Genius187:** Morgan, it's the middle of the night, how can you see a squirrel running past your window?

**ChocolateThunder:** it's called porch lights, "genius" ;)

**Kevin'sGirl:** oooh, and he just stole one of ur potatoes Morgan!

**ChocolateThunder:** WHAT!

_ChocolateThunder signed off_

**Genius187:** I love potatoes!

**JJLovesWill:** Garcia, what r u doing at Morgan's house?

**Kevin'sGirl**: oh, Kevin's working late and I was bored :/

**SuperDad:** Everyone stop yelling, Jack and I r trying to catch up on sleep.

**JJLovesWill:** uh…I'm not going to ask.

**Rossi123:** I'll explain anyways, after being awake for a certain number of hours when we aren't working on a case, Hotch kind of snaps and goes a little loopy, so to speak.

**JJLovesWill:** oh, I c now :P

**Genius187:** Hotch, if you're trying to sleep, then WHY are you on the chatroom?

**Rossi123:** he had to ask…

**SuperDad:** excuse me, sir! I do not appreciate your back talk right now!

**Genius187:** uh…I think I'm just going to…go now

_Genius187 has signed off_

**SuperDad:** yeah, you do that!

**Rossi123:** uh, Hotch, I think you should go to bed, as in NOW!

**SuperDad:** WHAT!

_SuperDad has signed off_

**JJLovesWill:** I think I'm gonna go now…

**Rossi123:** ya, me too! G'night folks!

_JJLovesWill has signed off_

_Rossi123 has signed off_

**Kevin'sGirl:** but I'm still bored! Hm, maybe I'll hack into Morgan's laptop and send myself some more photos of him to photoshop ;)

**Yea…chat rooms are not my strong suit, even when I'm chatting with friends on MSN when we reach the point where there's nothing left to talk about…**


	9. Chapter 9: Movie Night

**Yayy! More chapters! Aren't you all so proud of me for updating more often? I know I am :P Anyways, enjoy this chapter. JJ, Seaver, and Garcia have a little girls movie night PS: I just made up the e-mail addresses, I have no idea what they are in real life – I'm just a high school student :P**

It was ten minutes until the BAU team was done for the day. Seaver didn't have any more files to look over (having slipped a couple into Reid's pile easily). With nothing else to do, she checked her e-mail one last time to while away some more time. There was one e-mail from Garcia, sent to both her and JJ, and a reply to said e-mail from JJ.

From: **Penelope Garcia** ()  
To: **Ashley Seaver** (); **Jennifer Jareau** ()  
Subject: MOVIE NIGHT!

_Hello my devilish blonde lovelys ;)_

_Kevin recently bought me "Mamma Mia" on DVD for a late anniversary present! I was wondering if you ladies would like to make a movie night out of it. There'll be popcorn, wedding dresses, Colin Firth *cough cough* JJ *cough cough*, a cat, and lots and lots of ABBA! What do you ladies say?_

_PG_

After this came JJ's reply.

From: **Jennifer Jareau** ()  
To: **Ashley Seaver** (); **Penelope Garcia** ()  
Subject: RE. MOVIE NIGHT!

_Sounds pretty good to me, I love ABBA…and Colin Firth. He's my Adam Levine *cough cough* Ashley *cough cough*._

_JJ_

Seaver then hit "Reply All" to this message.

From: **Ashley Seaver** ()  
To: **Penelope Garcia** (); **Jennifer Jareau** ()  
Subject: RE. MOVIE NIGHT!

_I saw that on Broadway! Can't wait, I suppose I'll have to live with ABBA, Queen, and Green Day until they make a musical called "Misery". :P_

_Ashley_

00000000000000

Of her and JJ, Seaver was the first to arrive at Garcia and Kevin's apartment that evening. After Garcia let her in and as she was taking her coat off, she was greeted by something brushing up against her ankle. Looking down, she saw a small, black cat looking up at her, meowing in earnest to be petted.

"Who is this?" she cooed as she knelt down and scratched the cat behind the ears.

"That, my dear, is Sergio," Garcia said as she came back from her kitchen bearing wine and food.

"Oh, well aren't you a handsome kitty, Sergio," Seaver cooed some more before standing back up and taking the empty wine glass Garcia offered to her, then filling it for her.

Soon after there was a knock on the door, revealing JJ, who basically waltzed in and demanded alcohol. Seaver giggled at this as Garcia poured JJ a glass of wine.

"Mm, as much as I'm loving this, Garcia, but if you're going to make us drunk, how are we supposed to get home afterwards?" JJ asked.

"Oh, don't worry, my blonde amigas, Kevin should be back by the time we're all done here, so he can drive you both back home," Garcia said.

"And if he _isn't_?"

"Well, we can worry about that later," Garcia chuckled lightly.

000000000000000

Close to the end of the movie, where Donna gave away Sam, the three women still had a few tears leaking out after listening to the performance of "The Winner Takes It All".

"I am _so_ doing that for my wedding," Seaver said as she dabbed her eyes the sleeve of her t-shirt for the umpteenth time.

"Huh?" Garcia asked while still paying close attention to her TV screen.

"I'm going to be given away by my mom when I get married*," Seaver replied.

"To Spence," JJ whispered, followed by stifled giggles on her part. Seaver's response to that comment was a handful of popcorn thrown at the reappointed media liaison.

"Girls, play nice," Garcia said absent-mindedly. "And Seaver, my dear, please stop denying your feelings for our favourite resident genius."

"Oh, please, when are you guys going give up and realize that there is _nothing_ going on between _me_ and Spencer Reid, nor will there _ever _be?" Seaver exclaimed. By this time, all three women were facing each other and have forgotten the movie playing in front of them.

"Alright, right now, I want you to shut up and listen to what JJ and I have to say," Garcia said as she turned to Seaver. "Before you joined us, Reid was the youngest one of all of us. And we always teased him because he was the 'kid' of the group. Now there's someone else on the team who can look up to _him_, and he likes that, because we've had more experience and don't need to go to him for advice. I can also tell that for _you_, you like that there's someone on the team that you can relate to because of your ages."

"Yeah, but there's this little thing called the anti-fraternization rules that we would have to get around even if we _did_ have feelings for each other," Seaver said.

"That won't stop you two from going out for _one date_ just to see how it goes," JJ inquired.

"Do tell how you know this, JJ," Seaver said.

"Years ago, before I met Will, Jason Gideon, the guy who used to have Rossi's job, gave Spence some football tickets for his birthday. Red Skins tickets, I should add, which is my favourite team. Anyways, his – Gideon's – intention with those tickets was to get Spence to ask me out. I mean, the date didn't really go anywhere, but at least we took that chance," said JJ.

That put the situation into a whole new perspective for Seaver.

"I don't really know how to reply to that now," she said quietly.

"Just ask him out on _one_ date and see how it goes," Garcia said.

**Yes! I **_**finally**_** finished this chapter! Sorry for making everyone wait for so long, I was having some trouble with a couple of parts. But like I said before, I've wanted to write this chapter for a long time and I'm so happy that it's finally done.**

***I have been looking forward to Seaver saying this line since I started writing this fic pretty much!**


	10. Chapter 10: Speculating

**Hola again! This shall be the last chapter for this fic! But don't worry, more Reid/Seaver love will be coming as I will be writing the sequel soon! I'll write some more details about that later, but stay tuned!**

Seaver was nervous. No doubt she liked Reid. He was _incredibly_ smart and also very nice. She even had to admit that he was pretty cute when you looked at him that way. But after listening to what JJ and Garcia had told her the night before, she wasn't sure if she liked him as just a good friend or if there could be something more there. Of course, after constantly denying feelings for one another to the other person and the rest of the team, she didn't want to scare him off at the thought that she might actually like him.

She had been sitting at her desk in the bullpen when she had these thoughts turning in her mind, and was soon snapped out when Reid himself walked in.

"Morning," he said. It took Seaver a moment to realize that he was still wearing his sunglasses and didn't take them off until he had sat down at his desk and had a file in front of him.

Not wanting to intrude, Seaver turned back to her file, but when she turned back to Reid a few minutes later, she could see him now pressing a few fingers to his temple and had the same look on his face that he wore that one time he was asleep on the jet.

"Are you OK?" she asked.

"Hmm?" Reid looked up. "Oh yea, just got a bit of a head ache, what with it getting so warm out these days.

"I've got some Tylenol in my bag if you want," Seaver offered kindly.

"No, it'll go away soon enough. Thanks anyways," he mumbled.

"OK," she nodded.

000000000000000

A few hours later, Seaver was approached by Garcia to go out for lunch together. She asked if JJ was coming also, to which Garcia replied that the liaison had made plans already will Will and Henry. Seaver had to admit she was a little upset, the other agent was beginning to grow on her, and she was another person she could easily go to for advice, specifically from a female standpoint.

Nevertheless, she joined Garcia for lunch at T.G.I. Fridays where, of course, the first topic of discussion that Garcia brought up had to do with their conversation on Movie Night.

"So have you asked him yet?" she asked. Seaver already knew she meant Reid.

"No, I have _not_," she replied.

"Seriously, Ash! It's been almost a week!" This statement shocked Seaver a bit. No one on the team called her by her first name except for Rossi, and that was only because he had known her previously to her coming to the BAU. "What are you so afraid of?" Garcia asked.

Seaver slouched in her seat.

"I don't want to scare him off," she said.

"So… are you saying that you might actually _like_ him? As in _like him_ like him?"

"I've been thinking a lot about what my feelings are, and I just don't want anyone to get hurt from this. I already know about some of the stuff that he's been through, and I don't want to add anything to that list. Plus, there's the whole anti-fraternization rule that we'd have to try and get around, and we're all under enough pressure as it is just from the job," Seaver said.

Garcia was surprisingly quiet after listening to this, and only nodded slowly.

"Can you do me a favour and _please_, just keep this between us? I don't want anything to get around, especially if it turns out that nothing happens."

"Yeah, of course. Yeah," Garcia said.

Seaver nodded.

"Thank you," she said.

0000000000000000000

When they got back to the bullpen later, there was a letter in Seaver's inbox. Remembering what Hotch had said a few weeks earlier about the budget cuts and new job opportunities, she had an idea of what to expect. Sure enough, it was an offer to come and work at the FBI field office in D.C.

Seaver breathed a sigh of relief. This was what she needed. Of course, she would have to look into the job a little bit before officially accepting, and she didn't want to leave the B.A.U. right away. She at least owed the team that much.

_I'll give it a week to think before I officially make up my mind_, she thought. Another thing this helped was her feelings for Reid. At least now there was a greater chance that they would work out. But that was thinking too far ahead. She still hadn't even asked him for that first date yet. Either way time would tell and right now all she could do was hope for the best.

Just then, JJ came by to tell everyone to meet in the conference room in five minutes.

**DONE! Well, for now at least. I hope you've all liked this fic. I know that it didn't end with Reid and Seaver officially getting together, but that will definitely be coming up soon, so don't worry. I shall be writing a sequel for this fic and it'll be a cross-over with my second favourite show "Glee"! It'll be a casefic, so wish me luck as that will be my first time doing that and I still need to get a hang on the whole profiler stuff and what not **

**But thank you to everyone that has been reading this fic, adding it to their alerts/favourites, and keeping up with frequent reviews.**

**Extra special shoutouts to:  
**azab and amk7089  
**for their frequent reviews and feedback **


	11. Author's Note

**Alright folks! The sequel to "Moving Forward" is up now. It's called "Close to Home", and you can see it in the crossover section as it is a case-fic crossover with **_**Glee**_**. Please review if you get the chance to read it, as I would very much appreciate the feedback (I've had none so far *cries*).**


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